The story, begun during my second semester of grad school, like so many stories morphed. It began as magical realism which led to a workshop where we never got around to discussing the craft of the story because two sides formed to argue whether the main character was having an “out-of-body experience” or a “near death” experience. It became obvious pretty quickly that the strongest part of the story was the prison scene and taking the advice of so many writing greats, I killed my darlings in the form of the wonderful magical opening scenes.

What happened in actuality is what happens to many writers if they are open to the process. I found the core of the story but to find it I had to write my way to it. When I did that, I had to cut off that early road trip which had little to offer the reader. It only hurts for a bit. And the pay off is incredible. Branded in Gray sold to A Fly in Amber. Exciting! Beyond that, it is the Feature Story for the month of January. Now, if killing my darlings can lead to that kind of excitement, I’m off to kill a few more. Ah, so many to choose from…